User blog:Matarrok/The Good, The Evil and the CRAZY!!
Hey Guys! Just wanted to know what sort of wierd and wonderful characters we have on this wiki. WHAT IS YOUR ALIGNMENT!??!??!? Anyway for this blog. I'd like you to list as many characters as you want and their alignment in the comments section. For example: my character. Diablo D. Dax would have a aligment of Chaotic Neutral as he does whatever the hell he wants and believes that Chaos is the only True order. If you need help deciding what your character is use these categories. The "moral" axis can be adequately explained by the focus of those morals: Good people are more focused on you in the context of kindness and assistance; that is, they feel that they should help everyone else when possible. Neutral people are usually focused on us in terms of the welfare of themselves and their family and friends (in that they can be charitable, but their "circle" always comes first), but they can display elements of me; in terms that they tend to look out for number one and aren't interested in the affairs of others. Evil people, usually take me in a far more extreme light, at the expense of other's misfortune, but like good can also be focused on you, but rather in the light of destruction and suffering. *Lawful Good: Basically, they believe Law is Good, and that you do good by upholding the law. The alignment of The Cape, Paladins. Believes in Truth, Justice and such, but may potentially believe in them a little too much. Poorly portrayed, he tends to be Lawful Stupid, largely depending on your interpretation of "good". Individuals who believe that Rousseau Was Right will tend to view society as tending towards Lawful Good, with most individuals within it as lawful orNeutral Good. In D&D canon up to the most recent edition, archons, celestials who inhabit the Seven Heavens, are Lawful Good. From a non-D&D more realistic perspective however, LGs are likely altruists who believe in an orderly lifestyle for the benefit of their species. *Neutral Good: Sweetness and light. Doing good is more important than upholding the law, but law is not a bad thing. Not too caught up in Order Versus Chaos; concerned with moral goodness, but often not willing to enforce it in others. The Messiah is very likely to be Neutral Good. Just think "basically nice person" and you've probably got it. (For advanced learners, there's Good Is Not Nice.) Neutral Good states may be really nice places to live, but depending on how idealistic or cynical the setting is, they may be deluding themselves. The guardinal celestials of D&D, beastlike creatures who inhabit Elysium, are Neutral Good. *Chaotic Good: Rebels and free spirits who are more often than not seen opposing tyrants and other oppressive types. Somewhat like Chaotic Neutral, only much nicer. They tend to believe that things like order, discipline, and honor get in the way of doing good. Or they may believe too much order is bad foreveryone. Whatever their stance is, they act on their ideals before they let laws get in the way, and sometimes they dare the laws to get in the way. Whether they're portrayed as Big Damn Heroes, too damn idealistic, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, or just a damn problem depends on the views of the author and, ultimately, readers. Represented in pre-4th Edition D&D by the elf- and fey-like eladrin celestials of Arborea. *Lawful Neutral: The rule-abiding sort. Law and order is more important than whether you're good or evil. Believes in keeping order, though not necessarily in Justice as a universal constant (though they may - this can get complicated). They'll arrest a robber or rapist, but may also kick a family out of their home for failing to pay rent, even if they were poor. May also believe in a Cosmic Order that transcends laws - many monks are Lawful Neutral. Just as often the bad guys as the good guys in an Order Versus Chaos situation. People who think Hobbes Was Right will argue that all societies tend towards Lawful Neutral, as the Always Chaotic Neutral individuals who make up society surrender their freedom to the law in exchange for protection from other Chaotic Neutral individuals. Modrons, D&D beings of geometrically perfect precision and order who inhabit the plane of Mechanus, are Lawful Neutral. Mercenaries who obey their contracts without question, and take either side of the moral spectrum, are Lawful Neutral. The Stoic can make a good Lawful Neutral. *True Neutral: Sometimes known as just Neutral, or even Neutral Neutral. Comes in two flavors: Keeping the Balance and Just Doesn't Care. Druids arecanonically the former sort, on the same side as the animals. The balance-happy sort may sometimes be characters just too dumb to know the difference, but may also be a Wild Card. It's not uncommon to see True Neutral monks, for instance; not to mention ordinary folks who just want to be left alone. Most Punch Clock Villains fit under this alignment. Your average citizen of Libria (in Equilibrium) is an example of the "Just Doesn't Care" version of neutrality, without necessarily being stupid - the government would probably be Lawful Evil. Druids in D&D were required to be True Neutral until the 3rd Edition of the game, and even then had to maintain "some of nature's neutrality". Mordenkainen, from the Dungeons and Dragons Greyhawk setting, a very powerful wizard who actively tries to keep any major power from getting the upper hand, is an example of the "Balance Keeping" version. Animals, meanwhile, are considered to lack any sort of moral capacity; since moral judgments can't be placed on them, they are canonically true neutral in Dungeons and Dragons. Rilmani, metallic-skinned humanoids from the Outlands, are the True Neutral archetype, maintaining the balance between all the other planes. If True Neutrals include the kind with a head for things, then they most likely typically do not care for idealist virtues and/or politics. Intelligent true neutrals are quite logical in how they go about things, including morals. Employers fire and hire employees in equal measure, etc. *Chaotic Neutral: The ultimate free spirits, or just lunatics? It can go either way. Chaotic Neutral characters are all about freedom, and don't care so much about morality. Sometimes they're just amoral nutjobs, and sometimes they're generally good people with a wild streak that sometimes leads them into bad things. Often used by players in Tabletop Games to excuse doing anything they feel like (in the case of a Game Master who disables evil alignments - see Neutral Evil, below), and often prohibited by the sort of Game Master who also prohibits outright evil characters. Like Lawful Neutral, however, how "good" they ultimately end up seeming depends on which side of Order Versus Chaos the plot tends toward. The toadlike slaad ("I didn't know what he was talking about, so I ate him."), inhabitants of Limbo, are Chaotic Neutral. *Lawful Evil: The ordered sort of Evil, that often ends up in charge. Can be a lot like Lawful Neutral, but nastier. Well-structured, large-scale and often scarily successful evil. May believe in keeping order at all costs, or may simply believe that a well-ordered system is so much easier to exploit. Whether anObstructive Bureaucrat is Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral is basically a function of whether he enjoys what he's doing (see above example of kicking the family out of the house). Knight Templars are almost always this alignment. If God Is Evil, he's almost always Lawful Evil. On the "bright" side, the Worthy Opponentand Noble Demon are often Lawful Evil (if they're evil at all), as they tend to develop a "Code of Honor" to guide their actions, and can in fact be dependable allies in an Enemy Mine situation where other alignments might fizzle out. In circumstances where you are not a threat to their intentions, Lawful Evil might well be the "lesser of the three evils", but on the other hand its the one most likely to win and the one that most frequently causes suffering on a grand scale.BBEGs in general tend towards Lawful Evil - mostly since they plan to construct their very own empire that you'd better fall in line with - as do manyMagnificent Bastards. A mercenary who always keeps his contract (good or evil), but enjoys a job where he gets to hurt people, is Lawful Evil and more likely to end up working for the bad guys. The baatezu (devils) of D&D rule the plane of Baator with a Lawful Evil fist, and some of these were originally Knight Templar angels. As a good reference point, Big Brother (or O'Brien) from 1984 would be Lawful Evil. *Neutral Evil: Sometimes known as the Asshole Alignment. The Neutral Evil Alignment can be even more dangerous than the Chaotic Evil Alignment - simply because you can't be sure of which way they'll swing in the end. Neutral Evil characters are primarily in it for themselves, because while they are usually villains, they can also swing to the good guy's side, like the Magnificent Bastard they really are. They may also just happen to be on the Good Guy's Team because it's better for them at the moment. Why are they so bad? It could be that Evil Tastes Good or maybe Evil Feels Good. Could be that they've given in to The Dark Side. They could be part of the Religion of Evil. They could just be, you know, sociopaths. They could take looking out for number one way too far. Or it could be for no readily apparent reason whatsoever. They can be the very embodiment of malice, or just petty thugs. In Dungeons and Dragons, characters who are selfish above all else are Neutral Evil by default. Expect any Neutral Evil state to be Mordor, and a Neutral Evil city the Wretched Hive. The double-dealing, backstabbing, gleefully evil and mercenary fiends called yugoloths (daemons), living in the Bleak Eternity of Gehenna, are D&D'sarchetypal Neutral Evil beings. *Chaotic Evil: If Chaotic Neutral indicates the truly free spirit, Chaotic Evil is the truly evil free spirit. Whereas the Chaotic Neutral is concerned only with his freedom but isn't a really horrible person, the same can't be said for the Chaotic Evil character. They will do whatever they want to (even if, and sometimes, especially, it hurts other people) and (to them) rules don't matter. Whereas a Neutral Evil character will sometimes follow the law if it is convenient, theChaotic Evil character occasionally takes pleasure in going out of their way to break the law. So why are they evil? Perhaps they're in it for profit. Maybe they are narcisstic or egotistical. Or maybe they're simply insane; most but not all psychopaths fall under this designation. But contrary to what some believe,Chaotic Evil does not mean the kind of wanton, meaningless slaughter and destruction associated with Stupid Evil. Indeed, it is often the more calculating and intelligent villains of this kind that are the most dangerous. Being Chaotic Evil doesn't mean a character HAS to slaughter an entire village just because he's passing through. Of course, if he's feeling bored, or is having a bad day, he might just jam a knife in somebody For the Evulz. Serial Killers are good examples of Chaotic Evil. It's the canonical alignment of tanar'ri (demons), beings who were created in and by an endless semisentient Abyss that itself is dedicated to entropy, in Dungeons and Dragons. For a great example of how Chaotic Evil can be done well and not be Chaotic Stupid, see the Joker. Yeah. thats from Tvtropes an awesome website. Anyway if you can't see your character fitting any of these. make your own category! Category:Blog posts Category:Blog posts Category:Matarrok